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Flawed NHL post-season seeding system rewards the division winners over the best teams

New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist (30), of Sweden, turns aside the puck during the third period in an NHL hockey game, Tuesday, March 27, 2012, against the Minnesota Wild in St. Paul, Minn. Lundqvist had 24 saves on the night as the Rangers won 3-2. (AP Photo/Paul Battaglia)
Author: The Hockey News

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Flawed NHL post-season seeding system rewards the division winners over the best teams

The top three teams in Eastern Conference are listed in their proper order in the Atlantic Division.

The New York Rangers.

The Pittsburgh Penguins.

The Philadelphia Flyers.

There's no denying those three teams have been the class of the conference this season. The Rangers will likely get their just reward for finishing first: The No. 1 seed in the playoffs and home ice for as many rounds as they're alive chasing the Stanley Cup. Fair enough.

The Flyers and Penguins? Well, if the regular season ended Wednesday, they'd play each other in the first round, and the Flyers would have to trudge their 96-and-counting point total to Pittsburgh for Games 1 and 2—and, of course, Game 7, if needed.

Not so fair.

But that's just the way it is in the NHL, where division winners are seeded in the top three spots for the post-season ahead of teams with the whopping point totals. In the East, that means division leaders Boston (Northeast; 93 points) and Florida (Southeast; 89 points) are placed ahead of the Penguins (100 points), Flyers and New Jersey Devils (92 points entering Wednesday night) in the playoff race.

In the West, Pacific Division leader San Jose (88 points) is trying to hold off Dallas and Phoenix (87 points apiece) for a division crown and the No. 3 seed in the playoffs. That would put the champion ahead of Detroit, Nashville and Chicago, who all have cracked the 90-point total. Those three teams play in the Central Division and lag behind leader St. Louis.

In the NHL, teams can get rewarded with home ice even with a worse record and fewer points than their opponent.

Does this need to be fixed? Is there another way?

If the players have any say, the bugs in the playoff format need to be addressed.

The NHL has this system because of an unbalanced schedule that forces teams to play their division rivals six times and non-division rivals four times. The league also wants to make division races matter over the course of the grueling 82-game season.

That doesn't matter to some players, who believe the best teams should start with the weaker ones in the post-season, same as other leagues. Not that it necessarily matters (i.e., Duke vs Lehigh in the NCAA tournament).

"Why not look at strength of schedule," said Miller, a member of the NHL's competition committee. "You can almost do like an NCAA thing where, at the end of the year, everybody ranks how you did against top-tier teams. But that gets complicated. That's just my idea. I haven't heard anybody else talk about it. And I don't even know if it's really smart, because we do play everybody. As for college, everybody doesn't play against each other."

Here's the real kicker: In the East, the Devils are in great position in sixth place, not the Penguins or Flyers in fourth and fifth. The Devils would open against the Panthers—so the Flyers would be better off losing some of their final games instead of trying to gobble points. The Flyers wouldn't do that, of course, but this kind of flawed system leads to fans playing with those kinds of conspiracy scenarios.

"I think it's easy to pick apart the system this year because we have four teams in the division this year that are doing really well," Penguins defenceman Brooks Orpik said. "There's a reason why that rule's in place. I mean yeah, it's been talked about this year where maybe the division winner automatically makes the playoffs but you seed them where they'd be seeded, so Florida would be eighth or seventh, same with Boston.

"Maybe that's a better way of doing it."

Orpik has the right idea—seed teams 1-8 based on points. Based on Wednesday's standings, the Penguins would open against Ottawa, and the Flyers would start at home against the Panthers.

"I'm sure the NHL is sitting there saying, 'You know what, it makes for good TV, because those games are meaningful games coming right down to the end," Sabres defenceman Robyn Regehr said.

Blue Jackets general manager Scott Howson said he's never been part of a discussion among front office personnel about altering the current system. Howson liked the status quo.

"I think it should be the way it is," he said "There has to be a reward for winning the division. I believe it's appropriate."

Howson's not alone. Red Wings general manager Ken Holland said the current system is fair—even if it doesn't help out the Red Wings this season.

"If you're going to have divisions, you have to reward the division winners with something and right now that's a top-three seed," Holland said. "We all play different schedules. Some might have five good teams in their division, some three. But at the end of the day, there's so much parity in the league.

"In the playoffs, you're still going to have to win on the road if you're going to go anywhere."

With realignment and a new labour deal looming in the NHL, the system could hit the scrap heap within two years.

"I think that it could fix it," Penguins forward Steve Sullivan said. "I think they're going to tweak the system so there's going to be less divisions. It also gives them an opportunity to look at it and make it more fair for everybody."

Fair. That's all any fan, player or executive should want. Except for the two teams holding that position, who wants sixth place as a coveted seed?

Sure, from wild cards to mid-majors, no system in sports is perfect.

But the NHL's is as imperfect as any around.

_____

AP Sports Writers John Wawrow in Buffalo, Will Graves in Pittsburgh, Larry Lage in Detroit and Rusty Miller in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this story.

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Connor McDavid didn’t mince his words when asked post-game about Brandon Manning. He called the Flyers defenseman “classless” and said Manning admitted to injuring him on purpose.

Connor McDavid has had no shortage of head-to-head battles with young stars in the game. There has been outings against Jack Eichel, Auston Matthews and more than handful per year against the Flames duo of Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan.

But of all the players Connor McDavid could have had an on-ice feud with, it seems Brandon Manning is the first real rival for the Oilers phenom.

One might recall that it was during the early part of the 2015-16 campaign that Manning, a Philadelphia Flyers blueliner, got tangled up with McDavid as he looked to break in on goal, resulting in McDavid making hard contact with the boards behind the net. The impact with the boards saw McDavid break his collarbone and led to a 37-game absence for the then-rookie.

It was believed to be an unintentional act, something that simply happened as part of the game, and McDavid had even absolved Manning of any blame. That was until last night, more than 13 months after the Nov. 3, 2015 injury to McDavid..

During the Oilers’ hard-fought 6-5 defeat at the hands of the Flyers, McDavid was seen verbally jousting with Manning on a couple of occasions. The most obvious case came after a power play goal by McDavid, where he was seen skating towards Manning and shouting something in his direction.

It didn’t end there, though. Post-game, the Oilers captain went in on Manning, calling the hit that led to the broken collarbone an intentional act.

"I did all I could defending him last year in the media," McDavid said. "Everyone wanted to make a big deal saying he did it on purpose, and he wanted to say some comments today about what went on last year. I thought it was one of the [most] classless things I've ever seen on the ice. He said some things and our guys responded accordingly. I guess we can put the whole 'if he did it on purpose' thing to rest because what he said out there kind of confirmed that. Shows what kind of guy he is when he doesn’t step up and fight some of our guys.”

Shortly after McDavid commented on the incident, Manning fired back saying that he would “never intentionally hurt someone,” and added that’s not the way he plays.

"Anybody who knows me, I play a hard game,” Manning said, according to NHL.com’s Adam Kimelman. “That's the reason I'm here, that's the way I'm in the NHL. I'm not here to score goals like some of those guys. I think I play an honest game, and anyone who knows me knows I play hard and stuff happens out there."

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Coyotes’ Cunningham alert, awake and joking with teammates, but remains in hospital

There’s still no word as to what exactly caused Coyotes AHL captain Craig Cunningham to collapse on ice, but the 26-year-old was in contact with teammates and cracking jokes earlier this week.

More than two weeks after collapsing on the ice ahead of an AHL game between the Coyotes and Jets AHL affiliates, news has come that Craig Cunningham is starting to get back to his old self.

According to Tucson’s KVOA, Cunningham spoke with two teammates, Brandon Burlon and Christian Fisher, via FaceTime earlier this week, and both said that things are starting to look up for the 26-year-old Cunningham.

Fisher added that it was nice to see Cunningham, the captain of the Coyotes’ AHL affiliate Tucson Roadrunners, smiling again. But he wasn’t just smiling, he was also trying to have a good time with his teammates while hinting that he wants to get back on the ice.

“He was cracking jokes just as if he were here the next day," Fisher told KVOA. "It was pretty funny. He said he wanted us to come pick him up and take him to the rink. He was joking around. Stuff like that.”

The mystery still remains as to what caused Cunningham’s collapse, however. It came just moments before the game was set to start and resulted in medical staff in the building cutting away his equipment in order to attend to him. Cunningham ended up leaving the ice on a stretcher, was transported to hospital and he remained in critical but stable condition for much of the past two weeks.

Still, though, Burlon and Fisher said that there’s no “definitive answer” as to what caused Cunningham’s medical emergency. That’s more than all right with both players, too, so long as Cunningham’s health is starting to look up.

"What we do know is that he is doing well and we are moving forward here," Fisher told KVOA. "Hopefully, he will start the road to recovery now.”

Cunningham has suited up for 319 AHL games over the course of his career, netting 101 goals and 203 points, as well as scoring an additional three goals and eight points in 63 NHL games. He was drafted 97th overall by the Bruins in 2010, but was picked up by Arizona off waivers from Boston during the 2014-15 season.

John Tavares scores with a move no one had ever done before

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John Tavares scores with a move no one had ever done before

The New York Islanders captain undressed Jay Bouwmeester in the most unusual of ways, but the important thing is he kept the puck. Then he buried it

John Tavares: good at hockey.

The New York Islanders captain pulled off an absolutely stunning series of moves last night, culminating in a laser-shot goal against St. Louis Blues goalie Jake Allen. But let's get back to his humbling of Olympic gold medallist Jay Bouwmeester, because that's where the real magic happened.

Witness, as Tavares puts his stick behind his back and grabs it with his other hand while still skating and fending off Bouwmeester. Then, since he is a patient boy, Tavares waits and waits and waits before firing one top corner on Allen:

As the soccer folks would say, lovely. New York would go on to beat the Blues 3-2, with Anders Lee scoring the other two goals for the Isles. After struggling to begin the season, New York is now 6-2-2 in its past 10 games. Tavares leads the squad with 21 points through 26 contests.

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The Golden Knights have hit another hurdle with their name, this time with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. A trademark request has been rejected, but it doesn’t sound like the team expects a name change.

The Vegas Golden Knights are really having a tough time catching a break in the naming department.

On Wednesday, a trademark request by the Golden Knights was rejected by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in large part because the name and logo were deemed too similar to that of the NCAA’s College of St. Rose Golden Knights.

Yes, that’s right, yet another roadblock between the NHL’s newest franchise and the name Golden Knights.

The first hurdle for the team, and the first real hubbub about the name, came shortly after the naming ceremony in late November. The team had only had the Golden Knights moniker in place for a week when it was reported by The Fayetteville Observer’s Steve DeVane that the U.S. Army was set to review Vegas’ use of the name because it is shared by the Army’s highly decorated parachute team.

And all that came after Vegas owner Bill Foley purposely strayed from his first choice for the team name, Black Knights, in order to avoid any conflict with the U.S. Army’s NCAA athletics programs and after the singular name, Knights, was reportedly avoided in order to forego any conflict with the OHL’s London Knights.

Suffice to say, the naming process has been a headache thus far. However, before those who despise the name and/or logo go celebrating in the streets, it should be noted that the latest naming hurdle likely means nothing in the long run.

“Office actions like this are not at all unusual, and we will proceed with the help of outside counsel in preparing a response to this one,” the statement reads.

In their statement, Vegas also pointed to the shared names of UCLA and Boston, both named the Bruins, Miami and Carolina, both named the Hurricanes, and even pointed out that Vegas and Clarkson share the Golden Knights name. None of this is to mention the MLB’s Texas Rangers and the NHL’s New York Rangers share a name.

“We believe, at the end of the day, all parties will embrace the fact that we are the Vegas Golden Knights and this absolutely will work out,” Craven told Gotz. “I hope people don’t overreact to this at all. We believe everyone will be satisfied. We are only going to enhance the name Golden Knights for everyone. That’s our goal.”

UPDATE: NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly has released the following statement:

“We are currently reviewing the Trademark Office's letter and will prepare a detailed response demonstrating why we continue strongly to believe the Vegas Golden Knights mark should be registered in co-existence with the college registration, just as a number of other nicknames currently co-exist in professional and college sports (particularly where there is no overlap as to the sport for which the nickname is being used). That response is not due until June 7, 2017.

“We consider this a routine matter and it is not our intention to reconsider the name or logo of this franchise. We fully intend to proceed as originally planned, relying on our common law trademark rights as well as our state trademark registrations while we work through the process of addressing the question raised in the federal applications.”